P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
I know the Glass House had it's own thread, but I thought I'd just start a main one for the after-release tour, so everyone can post their personal show reviews (whether essays like mine or just broad opinions) or links to news articles about a particular show.
Please hold for my Oakland show review. It WILL be an essay because a lot happened. 
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
Before I start, I have an important announcement from Double K: "Tell YoYoPo and the rest of the forum cats that I said 'what's up'... and that it looks ready to me!"
Also, another tidbit: Thes & KK kept singing the 12sp Michael McDonald WRLA commercials to themselves the whole night. Haha... that sh*t is a major earworm to those dudes (I caught myself singin' it myself on the car ride down to the show). Anyway, to the review...
Once again, I overestimated the traffic between Sactown & Oakland and got there ~45 min ahead of door time. No fans were there yet, and Mike and Chris were outside, unloading their car. I said "what's up", then parked a block over and went in (they didn't even have any security dudes manning the door yet).
I watched the guys set-up on stage, shout some suggestions to the sound guy, and run a "Back In Black"/"Double K Show" soundcheck (got a couple seconds of it on my iPhone). Meanwhile, the New Parish staff finally noticed me hanging around & a booker or manager or something asked me who I was. Mike & Thes shouted "oh, he's helping us!" from the stage, and the guy gave me an all-access wristband. (For most of the night, I was the homies' drink-runner, go-fer, group-photo-taker at the merch table, and camera-man / back-up dancer during their performance. It was wild!)
Thes put out merch and then went and met the opening acts who had just shown up: Solganix (a funk/soul/hip hop band) and Melina Jones (an SF-based "Mistress of Ceremonies"). (I saw Melina perform, and she did a great job, tho the crowd wasn't too enthused... opening act syndrome. I missed Organix 'cause I was in the green room with PUTS the whole time. From what I heard coming through the walls, they also sounded really funky. Better than the last batch New Parish had opening for PUTS a few years ago.)
Thes had me bring PUTS' record bags/backpacks up to the green room (which was NICE, by the way; even had an outdoor deck) and told me to grab a beer (Red Stripe, if you're curious). Double K showed up a second later, and then Thes came in, and I got the lowdown on the tour thus far: the performances have been great, but the logistics have been a nightmare. Basically, the guys have been put up in really crappy hotels (even had to relocate out of a particularly bad one that appeared to be partially operating as a prostitution house), and their flight for today (the day after the Oakland show) was cancelled on them, and so they had to get a different flight and get up way earlier today. Thes also got a hardcore sinus infection and has been on steroids. He also said he wasn't supposed to drink any beer ("may cause projectile vomiting"), but he had a couple anyway, and we all stood behind him for the rest of the night.
Thes also showed me some specifics about the Rob Ford dance I needed to get right. 
A bit of a crowd had shown up by this point, and the cats headed to the merch table to sell things. I still talked with them a bit, and I found out a few things:
Thes disappeared from the merch table after awhile, so Double and I kept talking a bit while he took over on merch. Double's merch-selling style is WAY different than Thes. Thes didn't have him running credit cards, so KK was cash only, and he even gave away a free T-shirt to some cute ladies (one of them had on an old-school Run DMC T-shirt that Double was buggin' over).
At this point, Melina Jones had come on, and she was killing it, but the front row of the crowd was just sorta staring at her; I felt hella bad. I'll bob my head with an opener even if I'm not hyped, just because it's important to keep the vibe flowing, but in this case, I was genuinely into it, and I could see some people look at me and realize it was alright to be into the opener, and (I think) I got a few people head-nodding.
Anyway, Double and I talked about a lot more stuff, including the Brothaload demos made after the Question tour, the future dates on this tour, how he cuts the records they use for touring, and a couple other things. Double K filled me in on his solo work a bit more, and we talked a little bit about the creative music process: basically, he makes music, but then is a little self-conscious about the final product. He thinks that he has good ideas, but he said he wants to take a few demo tracks he's done and give the lyrics an overhaul, and he's got about 5 or 6 new tracks done that he's happier with than the older stuff. When i asked him about specific stuff, he said he was really happy with "Plantation Music". He and I tend to agree that both quickly-made/raw albums (Bloquera, Tha Brothaload demos, early PUTS) and the stuff that's given more production/care (later PUTS albums, etc.) both have an important place in music, and I get the feeling from both members of PUTS that they are really happy with the extra work they put in on the albums recently. I tried to suggest doing a double-sized album, with half raw tracks and half well-produced, but we got interrupted to snap another merch-table group picture, and I forgot to bring it back up.
I went looking for Thes after awhile, and he was actually having to deal with more tour BS (I won't get into details, but it involved show payment.) It took a long time, but he eventually got it straightened out, and then he went back down, closed out the merch, and we all went back up to the green room. Thes also brought another guy & his lady up to the green room. I guess he's gone to a lot of their shows and always missed meeting PUTS, and it was his birthday, I think, so he got the backstage treatment, geeked out a little (not putting him down, I did too my first couple times), and got some siggys and snapped a pic. He wanted Thes to bust a freestyle, but Thes was adamantly against it 'cause he was saving his throat (because of the infection) for the show. That guy said that he'd been on the UK forums before intermittently, but I didn't catch his screenname, and I don't know if he'll show up on here. (I just added him on FaceBook.) He chatted up PUTS for awhile & left, and then I went down into the crowd for a while to give the homies some pre-show space and catch the feeling around the joint. About 10 minutes later, I went back to the green room door and caught the homies coming out to do their set.
Thes handed me his iPhone so I could snap shots of them while they did their show, and so for their entire set, I was kinda all over the place. I didn't have a chance to write down their set-list this time 'cause I was too busy with camera duties, but it was very similar to the release show. The crowd this time was crazy nuts:
After the show, Thes sold out of basically almost all the merch supplies they brought in, the three of us went across the room to the bar for one last drink, and then Thes went to handle the payment for the evening (it took him longer than anticipated, and I didn't see him for the rest of the night. Had to tell Double to just say "bye and thanks!" to him for me.) But Double and I talked to each other for another hour after the crowd left, just about random sh*t... I think most of it was about our dogs being so d*mn funny (we both own small terriers... his is named "Archie Funker", ha!)
So, yeah, that's it... drove back and got home around 3 a.m... and still got to Saturday overtime by 6 a.m... I think I got like 2 hours of sleep. Because of that, I'm actually exhausted tonight (it's only 10 p.m. right now), so I think I'll call it a night. I usually go back through my posts and try to self-edit and truncate things, but I'm too tired, so sorry if this has mistakes or is way too long... goodnight, y'all!
One last thing: Since the PUTS forum will mark me as a spammer if I put too many links into a post, I just made a webpage with the pictures I took at the show and put it on my website... enjoy! http://www.thepointoftherhyme.com/Oakland2014.htm
EP
Joined: Apr '14
Posts: 283
Hey, sac? Awesome review as always. Do you know what the deal is with a July 20th show in SF? It's listed at the end of the 12SP commercial, but it's not on their tour schedule. That's probably the only show I'd be able to make this summer so I hope it's still on.
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
It's funny you mention that. While I was at the Oakland show, the guys were talking with the opening act, Melina Jones (she's from SF), and they asked her about the venue. I think they said its at "The Chapel" or something, and she said that it's a great venue with a big stage. Then, PUTS said that they couldn't announce the date til after the New Parish Oakland show was done because they didn't want to impact the New Parish show's turnout (he said it different than that, but I think that's the gist of what he was saying). So yeah, be looking for an announcement about an SF show soon. As far as I heard as of last night, it's still on, and the P wouldn't miss a chance for a show there cause the bay shows mad love.
EP
Joined: Mar '09
Posts: 188
Hey Sactown, I love the details man. I dont care if its too long I find it cool for someone to be as descriptive as possible because it feels like I was there. LOL. 
But anyway I will post a review for the New York City version of the show. I will try and buy tickets for the show the day after to keep you guys in tuned with whats going on. Hopefully ours will be as crazy and wild as the one you have been going to lately.
EP
Joined: Apr '14
Posts: 283
Thanks, man.
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
Forgot some other things:
• According to Double K, Thes dressed as LL Cool J for a Halloween show or something, and ripped his shirt apart on stage during the set (this was a LONG time ago, probably like OST or Question era).
• Kidd Lexus is living up in Sacramento with his family now, right up by me, I guess. Some of the other dudes in The Brothaload are also all settled down with family.
• Double K said that all he needs to have a good night is to get Blewfoot and Dolla Bill in a room and kick back... he said listening to those two guys talk about basically anything is the best.
I thought there was something else too, just can't remember what...
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
Also (sorry to add more!):
In Oakland, Thes gave a shout out to Hieroglyphics, and the place went NUTS... ear-splittingly loud. Just sayin'.
new cat
Joined: May '14
Posts: 3
great review!
I am a new member to the forum, but a LONG time fan. seeing them tomorrow in Victoria & thursday in Vancouver.
Cant wait! its been 2 years since I seen the P!
LP
Joined: Sep '11
Posts: 394
Good stuff as always Sac...... 
P fan #1
Joined: Oct '08
Posts: 3,255
Thanks, homies.
Here's a short published review of their Vegas show: http://www.lasvegasweekly.com/ae/music/2014/may/09/concert-report-people-under-stairs-may8-beauty-bar/
new cat
Joined: May '14
Posts: 3
thanks for posting the Vegas review!
I will be bring the boys some joints so its nice and easy on them in Canada haha!
new cat
Joined: May '14
Posts: 11
You had the Rob Ford dance down. Definitely thought you picked up the dance right there on stage haha.
Also, that whole episode with the big white dude who got thrown out was nuts.
All in all, me and my homies agreed it was one of the funnest shows we've been to in a while. I hope that SF show get confirmed!
LP
Joined: Nov '13
Posts: 317
The image of the Asian dude licking his jacket keeps making me laugh.
Good write up sac.
EP
Joined: Jul '05
Posts: 236
Was at the Vancouver show last night. Also my first time ever seeing the P live
Life changing experience! SO GOOD!!!! I'd put that in my top 5 shows of all time hands down :D
Got a few of my cherished possessions signed while I was at it. Such a fanboy moment to let the guys know their music makes my life better:
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